See more of the story

NASA'S Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet. The planet, named HD 21749c, is around 89 percent of Earth's diameter, and is 53 light-years away. Its surface is likely rocky and hot, with temperatures that could reach up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

It likely takes the Earth-size planet orbits the K-star HD 21749, which is around 70 percent of the size of the sun. It circles very close to its star, and likely takes fewer than eight days to orbit. This is the 10th planet discovered by TESS, and the second in the southern constellation Reticulum where HD 21749c and the K-star are located. Follow-up studies "could provide critical information about the planet's properties, including potentially the first mass measurement of an Earth-size planet found by TESS," a statement said.

Last known female Tangtze giant turtle dies

She may have been their last hope, and now she's gone.

Chinese media said the last known female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle has died — and that with her death comes the likely extinction of the species. She was believed to be more than 90 and died around 24 hours after researchers had tried to artificially inseminate her. Before the turtle died, there were only four known Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles left in the world, the New Yorker reported in December. Two other turtles live in the wild in Vietnam, though their sex is unknown.

Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles are the largest freshwater turtle species, weighing about 220 pounds. They have tiny, piglike snouts and large, smooth shells. The species once flourished, but human interference and poaching whittled their numbers to their now disastrous levels, National Geographic said. "No turtle is more critically endangered," the Wildlife Conservation Society said.